


we don't know where we're going (but we know where we belong)

by ashlearose13



Series: the delta trilogy [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Developing Relationship, F/M, I'm Sorry, Multimedia, Musicians, POV Natasha Romanov, Pop Princess Natasha Romanov, Rock Star Clint Barton, implied/referenced eating disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21809629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashlearose13/pseuds/ashlearose13
Summary: “Can you sing me another?” Tasha said eventually.“Okay,” Clint answered. He held his guitar the way he held her hand, strong and sure and steady. She was mesmerised by the way his fingers glided over the strings and the way he closed his eyes when he started to sing, his voice sending shivers right down to her toes.He sang Like Real People Do and she felt herself fall in love with him just a little more.-The sequel to "up all night on another red eye (i wish we never learned to fly)"
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov
Series: the delta trilogy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919128
Comments: 6
Kudos: 115





	we don't know where we're going (but we know where we belong)

**Author's Note:**

> hello here is nat's pov of my other fic up all night!! this bby is a lil bit darker (im SORRY) than the other but i wanted to maybe showcase the difference in the music industry when it comes to artists rights but anyway idk i just thought that tasha wouldn't have had a Great time her whole life 
> 
> title is from harry style's "sweet creature" and i really hope you enjoy this xx

Tasha had a thing for hands. Not a thing like a fetish, but a thing like she appreciated them, appreciated the way they held secrets and couldn’t lie even when the person they belonged to was lying. She had played all kinds of instruments with her hands, guitars and pianos and the flute when she was younger, but it never looked like _this_. It never looked so easy.

Clint played his guitar like it was an extension of his body, and Tasha couldn’t tell where he ended and the instrument began. She felt drunk or high or some combination of the two, watching him in the dim light cast by the New York skyline like she had every right to be there in bed with him.

“What’re you thinking?” he asked.

Tasha told him the truth. “You could do better.”

“Me? Nah,” Clint laughed. He knew what she was talking about. He always knew what she was talking about. “C’mon, sing with me.”

Clint only knew Maggie Rogers because it was music Tasha listened to, and she knew his fingers were soft on the strings the way she knew they were soft between her thighs, and it was just the two of them singing _Light On_ , the two of them in that bed with his old guitar and everything they wanted to say sitting right between them.

“That was good,” Tasha said at the end.

“Yea,” Clint replied easily. “It was something.”

Wanda had a tulle concoction bundled up in her arms and an apologetic smile on her lips.

Tasha liked Wanda, if only because she never actually _wanted_ to dress Tasha like an adult-sized child, but she had just about as much creative freedom as Tasha herself had; which was to say, absolutely none. But Wanda was young too and it felt nice to have a friend that saw all the pieces of her and not just the ones painted on in glitter.

Besides, Tasha liked _Love Island_ , and only Wanda understood why Camilla and Jamie should have won over Amber and Kem. It was a simple friendship, but sometimes Tasha needed simple.

It took three of them to pull the dress over her head and she let them, arms in the air and the skin of her stomach pricked with goosebumps. She could only imagine the field day Twitter would have with a dress like this. The show was a week away and she already had a headache.

“Show me from behind.”

Tasha turned and Ivan moulded her how he liked, fingers prodding along her waist and ribs and breasts. She let him pinch the tulle and a little skin too, let him just get it over with so she could get out of the pink monstrosity and back into herself. She was tired and dress rehearsals were _boring_.

“It doesn’t fit,” Ivan said. “How much weight have you gained?”

Tasha didn’t think she’d gained any weight, but she humoured him. “One pound.”

It always went like this. Tasha stood on the scales and Ivan yelled at her and then they took the dress off and she stood, mostly naked, and let Wanda measure her for no reason other than so that Ivan could yell at her some more. There would be no alterations to the dress, just alterations to Tasha, another layer of skin peeled off and thrown in the trash.

“I thought the tulle would remind you of home,” Wanda said softly to her later.

But Tasha didn’t think of home anymore. She was just tired.

**A M Y** @amytimeamywhere

natalia SLAYED the carpet but sugar sky shouldve been soty ,,, daylight ROBBERY

> E! News @enews
> 
> Taylor Swift, Natalia, and More Best Dressed Stars at the MTV Music Awards.e.onli.ne/2h239jj

**natalias baby** @sugaskie

nat looked the CUTEST i love that dress i could just eat her up she's so cute

****

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Taylor Swift, Natalia, and More Best Dressed Stars at the MTV Music Awards.e.onli.ne/2h239jj

Tasha read the headlines after the MTV Awards because she always read the headlines, and because she had been dizzy enough the whole night to not actually remember everything that had happened.

She had sat beside Clint Barton, and she knew that he had been watching her the whole night, watching the way she clapped and cheered like she had been taught to. She didn’t remember asking him anything but there was a picture of the two of them turned towards each other, Tasha’s pink dress draped half over his chair, and he looked like he was actually interested in whatever rubbish she was saying to him.

She did like _Fringe_. She liked the whole of _Lime Cordial_ , sometimes felt the lyrics resonating deep in her bones. It was a great album, a great way to launch a career. When Clint Barton sat down with a guitar, people shut up and listened to him. She wondered what that would feel like.

“Congratulations,” Ivan said.

“Thank you,” Tasha replied. Pop video wasn’t the type of award she was interested in winning anymore, but it looked cute on her Wikipedia page.

“Who was the boy they moved next to you?”

She was surprised that Ivan didn’t know. She shut her laptop so he wouldn’t see the picture of the two of them and inspected her nails idly. The polish was chipped, her fingers dry. Tasha didn’t like the way her hair felt after awards shows but the dress had fit and Wanda had sent her home with cookies.

“Clint Barton,” she answered eventually, looking at Ivan. “Does it matter?”

Ivan had a look on his face that told her it did matter. “It’s not in our image.”

“When will fluffy pink dresses not be in our image?”

Tasha liked talking back, even if it made Ivan mad. It had been years and she still did exactly what they said, and the dress fit because she had drank water and not much else and she never saw headlines like that, only ones that painted her perfectly as America's sweetheart when she wasn’t even technically American to begin with.

It would be nice to have someone point out the edge to her, the way she sometimes couldn’t smile in a photo shoot or stop her hands from shaking in an interview. The sharp bits were the interesting bits, the bits that let her speak to Ivan like he wasn’t holding her future in the palm of his hand.

Ivan glared. “There is someone I want you to meet.”

Tasha knew music. They wouldn’t let her think about it but she knew it, and she had tried to turn _Sugar Sky_ into something they couldn’t understand so she wouldn’t feel like she was suffocating anymore. Ivan didn’t know music, but he knew other ways to smother her.

“Is this an arrangement?” Tasha spat.

Ivan shrugged. Tasha let herself fall back against her mountain of pillows and stared at the ceiling, waiting for him to leave so she could fall apart or throw some things, she hadn’t decided yet. He stood watching her for so long that it didn’t matter what she decided in the end.

She thought he might kiss her goodnight. She turned her cheek away just in case.

Clint had a farm. It took one half of Tasha’s security team to get her there and the other half to lie to Ivan, but he had a horse called Dip and she had a bag of organic peppermints, and it felt nice to wear a turtleneck and jeans and not have anything expected of her.

“You have a horse,” Tasha said. There was a scar, thin and white, stretching across the expanse of Dip’s shoulder.

“Told ya,” Clint said. Tasha watched his hand swoop confidently over the horse’s neck and thought she might like the feel of it. “She’s a meany, though.”

The horse had kind eyes. Clint had kind eyes too, Tasha had noticed. He watched her like she might do something important, never searching for her next mistake or looking at all the parts of her that men normally looked at. She liked his easy smile and the way she could pull her beanie right over her ears without having to worry what her hair would look like afterwards.

“She’s not,” Tasha cooed. “Look at her. Her eyes are too soft.”

Clint didn’t look at Dip. Tasha felt her smile stick for the first time in months or years and when they walked back to the house she held his hand, just in case.

She did like the feel of it. She liked the feeling a lot.

nat-attack

> “I haven’t really thought about the next album. It will happen when I… oh, no, I’m not in a relationship at the moment. It’s… [laughs] no, it’s not something I’m looking for. I’m sure everyone will know when it does happen!”
> 
>   * Natalia to E!News on the AMA Red Carpet
> 


#she was so uncomfy #i feel like #she almost had something good to say about an album?? #and e was like #nah we wanna know about the d #natalia

2187 notes

The tulle was wet against her legs. Tasha didn’t know what had happened to her Artist of the Year trophy, could only just remember passing it to someone before she forced Happy to drive her to the after party. She had cried in the backseat and Happy had played Tchaikovsky because it usually made her angry, but it only made her sadder this time and she didn’t know why she was crying at all.

Clint passed her a cup. “I don’t know what this is.”

He was shouting. Tasha grinned and drank the drink in one gulp. It was sweet and sour and burned all the way down to her toes. Clint already had another cup for her and she thought she might collapse under the weight of his gaze.

“It’s loud,” Clint said.

Tasha gripped his forearm. “I know somewhere we can go.”

She knew about the room under the stairs because she had hidden there before. Tasha had only dated John Mayer for a couple of months before she fucked it up and ruined Ivan’s arrangement and it had seemed like a good idea at the time, to crawl into that little space and hide until everyone stopped yelling.

Tasha didn’t like being yelled at. Sometimes she screamed back but usually she let whoever was doing the yelling get it out of their system. It was just easier that way.

“Do you dress yourself?” Clint asked.

Most of Tasha’s dress was covering Clint. They sat side-by-side, shoulders pressed tight together, and there was only one dim light that let Tasha see the way Clint’s eyes crinkled at the corners.

“I have Wanda,” Tasha said without elaborating.

“Huh, I have Coulson.”

Coulson was rumoured to be the best manager in the area and it was reflected in Clint’s success. Tasha had liked his handshake and knew he was kind even though she had only met him for less than a minute at an awards show. He looked good in a suit.

“I have Ivan,” she said. There was venom in her voice that she couldn’t quite cover up and she blamed it on whatever concoction Clint had poured her. “Well, maybe not for long.”

“ _Sugar Sky_ is good,” Clint told her. “There’s a lot of potential there.”

Tasha shrugged and took another sip of her drink. She had already told him too much and her legs were still wet from the pool. Her dress was probably ruined and Wanda wouldn’t say anything but Tasha would just know. She always ruined things.

“I don’t know if going to Asia is a good idea,” Clint whispered.

“Can’t be a bad idea,” Tasha replied. “I’ll text you.”

“Okay,” Clint said. “I’ll text you too, Tasha.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. His body was warm beside her.

[Image Caption: Tasha wearing the pink tulle dress, holding her Artist of the Year trophy with both hands close to her chest. She is smiling but her eyes are looking slightly off to the right, beyond the camera.]

View all 2,541 comments

 **natalia** thank you to the fans that voted for this!! I’m so excited to be your Artist of the Year!

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Nobody else called her Tasha. Her papa had named her Natalia and she liked the name, sure, but she didn’t like how it wasn’t just _hers_ anymore. She shared it with the world and it was business, now, the name that got her into after parties and to the front of interview lines on red carpets.

They hadn’t let her go back to Russia for his funeral. Papa had died when she was nineteen and halfway through an album cycle, and no amount of begging had gotten her anywhere except to a new city for a new night of her world tour. She couldn’t do anything but listen to mama cry over the phone and transfer her latest cheque into the family account.

Her cat had died, too, when she was twenty. By then she knew not to ask.

im going crazy

i think this might be what makes me snap

for real

what

is this bc wanda got you a birthday cake

yes

it’s a nice gesture

i didn’t ask for a cake

i don’t even like chocolate cake

that much anywah

i would kill for a cake rn

can you send cake in the mail??

ugh

i can't even eat it so

why

if you can't eat cake then whats the point really

cake is the best thing to happen

is it allergies

tasha??

sorry its fine

not allergies

oh

wait is today your birthday

no dw

its like a week away or something

i don’t care

hey are you busy later

i have a shoot at 3

im gonna call

im gonna be bored

you already know that you're gonna be bored??

yea duh

i don’t have to

no

no its okay

please call

Tasha looked good in most things, and she did enjoy trying new clothes on if it didn’t also involve half the room watching her change. Wanda had set a screen up and Pepper bought dresses and pantsuits and the three of them hid away from the rest of the crew to sip champagne and gossip between takes.

Pepper was Tasha’s favourite photographer. She let Tasha decide how she wanted to stand and always made sure she was comfortable. She played soft music and Tasha thought she would make a good assistant if she weren’t so talented behind a lens.

“This will be a great cover,” Pepper said. “I’m leaning towards the green pantsuit.”

That had been Tasha’s favourite, too. She had a song recorded on her phone called _July_ and she didn’t know what was really going to happen next; if she stayed with Ivan she might shrivel up and die but she had no where else to go, and it was hard to distance herself from the person they had created, the girl who had left her home to try and make something of herself.

Pepper didn’t know anything of the weight on Tasha’s shoulders, the decision she had to make almost crushing her. Pepper _did_ know that there was something different between the smile she wore with the pantsuit and the one she wore with the dresses. Maybe Pepper even knew what choice she was going to make before she made it.

“We’ll send through the green,” Pepper declared. “I think that one really makes a statement.”

nat-attack

> “There are a lot of things I’m looking forward to as I turn 24. There’s definitely the possibility of a new album. And I can't wait to explore and just… have fun! Isn’t that what 24 year olds do? I guess I’m just taking one thing at a time and whatever happens, happens.”
> 
> \- Natalia for People magazine, on turning 24.

#3 DAYS AND COUNTING #this is my favourite cover of hers btw #she looks so grown #also she does seem a lil unsure of the future tho #but is almost tryna brush it off?? #idk

1836 notes

Ivan had a cigarette between his lips and her magazine laid out in front of him. “Who agreed to this cover?”

“I did,” Tasha replied. She wanted to hoist herself onto the counter so she could reach the Russian chocolates she knew Ivan kept up the top. “I liked the green.”

“Haven’t you learnt yet, Natalia?” Ivan said coldly, putting his cigarette out on the glossy image of her face. “It isn’t about what you want at all.”

Tasha toed out of her heels and took a minute to sit behind the screen without Wanda or Pepper fussing over her, because as much as she appreciated their friendship there was only so many lip-gloss samples she could take in one day.

Her phone vibrated in her lap and she squinted at the number for only a second before just answering it anyway. Tasha didn’t care who rang her or if she knew them or if it was just another stalker professing their undying love for her because it was all white noise anyway.

“ _Tasha?_ ”

She blew out a breath of air. “Clint. Hi.”

“ _Not interrupting am I?_ ”

“Nyet,” Tasha said without thinking. “Shit, sorry. No. You’re not interrupting.”

“ _Was that Russian? I don’t care if you speak Russian. That’s really cool_.”

Tasha only spoke Russian to her mama now because Ivan wanted America’s sweetheart and he had hired five vocal coaches to change her accent. Sometimes it slipped out, husky and deeper than the voice she used now, and her fans would make YouTube compilations that Tasha watched religiously.

“Yea, but I don’t really do that anymore,” she answered, pulling her knees up to her chest.

“ _Why not? Wikipedia says you're Russian._ ”

She laughed. “Right. Guess I just don’t have anyone to speak it with.”

“ _You manager is Russian though, right? What’s his face?_ ”

“Ivan,” Tasha said tightly. Her eyes burned. “Hey, do you mind if I Face Time you instead?”

“ _Not at all. Everything okay?_ ”

Tasha hung up without answering and took a minute to press her fingers against her eyes. There were calluses on the palms of her hand, tiny scars from all the times she dug her nails into her skin. She wanted to hold _Clint’s_ hand without knowing why.

He answered on the second ring, his face illuminated from the light of the screen. “Hey, Tasha.”

“Hi,” she said. “How are you?”

“It’s 5am,” Clint answered. “I’m bored. How are you?”

“Middle of a shoot,” she said. “I’m bored too.”

“Guess it’s a good thing I’ve got at least six hours before I have to be anywhere, then,” Clint said.

“Yea,” Tasha smiled softly. “It’s a really good thing.”

hey

feeling any better?

no

i have my period

its worse than usual

oh

why??

idk it changes with stress or diet

i'll get over it

just feel like all my insides are being ripped out nbd

shit

that’s really shit

anyway

do you actually have a horse

like a real horse

as opposed to a fake one

yes

i have a real horse

this seems fake tho

her names serendipity

i saved her from a fence

idk whether to be impressed or not

what happened

she ran into the fence

got all cut up

omg

that’s terrible

i want to meet her

good thing ur coming to the farm then

right??

if i said it’s the only thing getting me through this year

would that be sad

nah

it’s the only thing getting me through too

Tasha was happy to award Album of the Year to Taylor Swift, even if a part of her wanted it to be Clint just so she could kiss his cheek. She kissed Taylor’s cheek instead and thanked her for the flowers she had sent after Tasha had ended things with John Mayer, and Taylor thanked her for the birthday flowers and it could have gone on forever, the two of them thanking each other until Tasha remembered the award in her hands and why they were actually there.

Afterwards, after she found Clint and hugged him and convinced him to sneak out with her, they sat in the back of her car with greasy burgers and let Happy just drive them anywhere.

“You look nice,” Clint said. “Purple suits you.”

Tasha agreed. “Well, at some point the princess dresses get a little old, you know?”

“You have a knack for getting to places unseen,” Clint told her. “Usually there’s a billion paparazzi photos but no one knows I’m here.”

Tasha had six napkins shoved into the neckline of her dress. She liked her burgers juicy, with pineapple and extra sauce. Wanda would kill her if she ruined this dress, but for once she didn’t want to.

“Experience,” she replied. “Besides, _I_ know you’re here.”

“You’re different,” Clint said softly.

Tasha swallowed. “I have some thoughts on _Bridge of Clay_.”

**im flying high/ in you're sugar sky** @nataliabbby

anyone else sense a change in nat?? is our girl growing up??

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Natalia has Arrived on the Grammys Red Carpet!

**243 days| sunshine fun** @rubyred1

the purple is so classy lmao are we sure this isn’t a clone

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Natalia has Arrived on the Grammys Red Carpet!

“You’re recording a new song with Liam Payne,” Ivan said. “We’ve booked two days in the studio next week.”

Tasha was mid stretch so Ivan missed her glare. “Squeezing one last song from me before the contracts up, right?”

She still didn’t know what she was going to do, and Ivan was her second-best option when he should have been her last. She had a meeting with Phil Coulson that no one knew about but the thought of it made her stomach ache.

“Wait, is this an arrangement?” Tasha asked.

Ivan had a good poker face, but he liked to spite her. “One song, Natalia? It used to take more than that.”

Tasha pulled herself out of her split and stood to her full height, even thought it didn’t make her feel any bigger and she was small anyway, and did any of it even matter if she was going to be leaving anyway?

“You know that I never wanted that,” she hissed. “I just wanted to write songs and wear what I wanted and you made me into something that was so _fake_ and you made me do –”

Ivan grabbed her arm and she shrunk, felt all the pieces of her collapse into each other and she was so _mad_ , so mad and scared and anxious about it all. He pulled her a step closer to him and she could smell the cigarette smoke on his skin, choking and choking and –

“Nothing you say will ever mean shit,” Ivan spat. “Nobody cares about you beyond what I made you and you should be _thanking_ me, you ungrateful little bitch.”

Tasha nodded. It was all white noise anyway.

i think i would like to visit your horse soon

okay

how’s your schedule looking??

**yes to the mess** @crisptomato

yea this was weird… idk what the end game was but liam sucks so

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Liam Payne and Natalia Collaboration Leaves Fans Confused. e.onli.ne/2aad2o1

**stream bridge of clay!** @cbartonnn

liam was trash if they want a good collab surely clint would be the number 1 option oof

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Liam Payne and Natalia Collaboration Leaves Fans Confused. e.onli.ne/2aad2o1

Tasha curled into Clint’s side. She could hear _Roslyn_ downstairs because they hadn’t turned it off last night, and now the light was coming in through the window and she could push her cold toes against Clint’s warm thigh and sink into the feeling of whatever _this_ was.

“Morning,” Clint said. His hair was gold and shaggy across his forehead and she knew that his nose was a little crooked too, now. Every part of his face was daylight and she wanted to bask in it forever.

“Morning,” Tasha said, voice husky and Russian, the voice Ivan had stripped from her all those years ago. “Sleep well?”

“Hmmm,” Clint hummed. His hand was large and she liked the weight of it on her stomach. “It’s early, right?”

Tasha closed her eyes, feeling Clint move down her body until his mouth was soft and searching between her thighs. She tangled her fingers in his hair, pushed him against her because no one had ever done this before and everything with Clint was new and magical and _nice_.

It was nice with his mouth on her, his breath against her thighs and his fingers on her breasts, his whole being seemingly enveloping her in that one moment like nothing she had ever felt. It was nice with his smile when she peeked under the cover to meet his gaze, and it was nice much later, riding his horse in the field with him jogging beside her.

Tasha liked nice.

[Image Caption: Tasha astride a paint horse, arms held up and out like she is flying, hair tinged with sunlight and face open and utterly happy. The silhouette of a man can be seen on the grass before the horse.]

View all 5,952 comments

 **natalia** this is dip

APRIL 9, 2018

Coulson wore a suit and ordered her a peppermint mocha. “I think we could have a very bright future together.”

Tasha was wearing a skirt made for toddlers and a shirt with bees printed on it. She felt stupid and sad and tired, but meeting with Coulson had been her idea and the music video for _Honey_ had just wrapped, so she sat with him in Denny’s at 2am and tried not to think about the way Liam Payne had brushed his hand against her ass.

“That sounds good,” she said. “I think I would like that.”

“Consider it a done deal,” Coulson smiled. “Welcome to the team, Natalia.”

nat-attack

> okay so the thing with l*am p*yne was really…. weird?? it didn’t seem genuine or like nat wanted to be doing it at all bc the promo was mainly him i feel?? idk i have this… feeling that this was the last thing she was gonna do with bw and they were milking it for as long as they could

#i just #i think she's really not doing well #idk i guess we haven’t really had this situation with nat befoe #shes always on top 

1341 notes

The weekend was over and then Clint was dragging her down his hallway, somersaulting them into his bed and laughing against her shoulder when she dripped sauce down her chin any time they ordered takeout in the early hours of the morning.

She thought that Coulson might know even though Tasha was the best at sneaking, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was the way that Clint’s eyes softened when he looked at her and the way that it felt when she draped herself across him; the two of them existing in a bubble that they had created all on their own.

“Hey Tasha?” Clint asked one night. “You know you’re beautiful?”

Tasha laughed and kissed him, hard and deep. “You’re beautiful too.”

Her papa had named her Natalia and she liked the name, but Clint called her Tasha and she liked that more.

Coulson booked Pepper to take the promotional photos for her signing to Shield, and Tasha wore another pantsuit and ate cookies with Wanda between shots. She hadn’t told Clint yet and she didn’t know why. She told him everything.

“It’s not going to change anything,” Pepper assured her. “Clint’s not going to leave.”

“I know,” Tasha said. “I just don’t want to fuck it up.”

**im flying high/ in you're sugar sky** @nataliabbby

im a lil scared to see where this takes nat… idk anyone else feel like a big change is coming??

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> BREAKING: Natalia Has Left BW Records for Shield Music. More at e.onli.ne/8eh37

**this is a knife** @lolzrey

good on her!! bout time she grew her own wings and left bw in the dirt!!

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> BREAKING: Natalia Has Left BW Records for Shield Music. More at e.onli.ne/8eh37

you do know im not mad right

yes

you said you weren’t mad anymore

well i wasn’t really MAD mad to begin with

but i feel like…

are you not telling me something tash??

no im just a little scared

about touring

and idk i might miss you

might

you might miss me too

yea i will

so much

but its all gonna be the same when i come back anyway

we’re both with phil now so like we’ll always be around anyway

i know

sometimes idk how to feel about things

that’s okay

we can work it out

besides im not sold on the idea of a tour anyway

oh yea??

kinda wanna sing songs with my old guitar and you

Coulson didn’t mind that Tasha sat on the counter. Technically it was Clint's counter and Clint let her do whatever she wanted, but Coulson didn’t care that she chose to sit there when he dropped his bombshell news on Clint.

“I have an idea.”

“Can you sing me another?” Tasha said eventually.

“Okay,” Clint answered. He held his guitar the way he held her hand, strong and sure and steady. She was mesmerised by the way his fingers glided over the strings and the way he closed his eyes when he started to sing, his voice sending shivers right down to her toes.

He sang _Like Real People Do_ and she felt herself fall in love with him just a little more.

dailyclintbarton

> 2017:
> 
>   * so we all agree they met at the mtv awards right?? sat next to each other front row
>   * then nothing until the amas which is a whole 4 MONTHS later
>   * (but as @clints-natalia pointed out, they went to the after party together)
>   * clint was in asia for the whole of december but then THE GRAMMYS
> 

> 
> 2018:
> 
>   * the grammys are jan – we see clint and nat hug in that blurry backstage clip
>   * which fine but also THEY ONLY MET TWICE
>   * so something happened at the amas after party
>   * or december BUT
>   * clint had a vacay in jan too before bridge of clay was released AND the grammys
>   * then N O T H I N G
>   * until april
>   * clint and nat both disappear and then ~the insta pic~
>   * that was clint’ silhouette fight me
>   * nat is signed to shield in may and basically the only concrete proof i have they are dating is one blurry video and a shadow in a pic
>   * I need help
> 


#im on crack #this is a mess #in my head it all seems very legit #clint barton #natalia #what do we call them #clintnat?? #this blew up lol

2628 notes

Tasha liked to keep up to date with her fans and any news that included even a brief mention of her name, and before she knew it she was looking at Clint’s fans too, reading blog post after blog post about how much they wanted to make out with him.

The timeline caught her attention. She almost showed him but he was asleep beside her and she didn’t know that he knew what tumblr even was. They were missing some details, all the little things that they had managed to sneak past. Tasha couldn’t remember some of the events properly anyway. Coulson let her wear jeans and if she wanted two bowls of pho than that was okay too.

She liked the post and then closed the app.

**hom(i)er** @nothomersimpson

THEY'RE COLLABORATING?!? UNDER A NEW NAME?!?! MARTY IM SCARED -

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Clint Barton and Natalia to Record New Music, Bridge of Clay Tour Cancelled Ahead of First ‘Delta’ Album. e.onli.ne/23hyy

**number one delta stan** @natclint

“I’m happier with this album and Natalia is just phenomenal, so, yea, I hope the world loves it as much as I do.”

> **E! News** @enews
> 
> Clint Barton and Natalia to Record New Music, Bridge of Clay Tour Cancelled Ahead of First ‘Delta’ Album. e.onli.ne/23hyy

Clint had his guitar, and Tasha sat on a stool in a booth, and it was her seventh time trying to sing one line but her voice was all wrong and she didn’t know how to fix it. She rubbed her temples and didn’t think about the way her stomach ached with the thought of failure.

“I’m sorry,” Tasha muttered. “I’ll try harder.”

“It’s okay,” Coulson said. He reached for a control and she flinched, and she hated the way that she flinched because Coulson was on the other side of the glass and she was here, in a separate room of her own by herself, and it was _Coulson_ of all people.

Ivan had always been on the other side of the glass, too.

They released _Serendipity_ in the fall, two months later than scheduled but Coulson didn’t care. Tasha locked herself in the bedroom and read every review, forgetting to do anything for hours except let the words become a part of her.

It was too important to not feel anything. She knew Clint was sitting outside waiting for her and she couldn’t bring herself to unlock the door. It was them in an album and now the world knew too.

And then he was there, in the doorway. She didn’t know if she opened it but she was crying, and then he was crying too and then they were crawling into bed to hide beneath the covers, all limbs and salty kisses until the phone stopped ringing hours later.

“Do you think this all happened too fast?” Clint asked later.

Tasha had her head on his chest and in the back of her mind she knew there was a plane to catch. “Sometimes it feels like it didn’t happen fast enough.”

Clint was quiet. She could hear his heartbeat and his breath and all the bits of him no one else heard. She had told him about Ivan and he hadn’t pitied her. He had listened.

“Do you think _Delta_ is a good idea?” he said.

“Fuck yea it is,” Tasha laughed, and she felt whole for the first time in years. “It’s both of us. What more could the world ask for?”

dailyclintbarton

> NATALIA MOTHERFUCKING ROMANOVA LIKED MY TIMELINE POST I ??!!?! im potentially gonna PASS out i can't believe she basically confirmed it and then those assholes had the audacity to announce they're releasing a whole NEW album?!!? this is my villain origin story im so tired

#I AM SCREAMING ABOUT THIS #UNTIL I DIE #can u believe #theyre actually dating my two lil beans #clintnat is the OFFICIAL name #anyway brb gonna take a fat nap

3821 notes

that’s okay

we can work it out

besides im not sold on the idea of a tour anyway

oh yea??

kinda wanna sing songs with my old guitar and you

well isn’t that funny

i wanna do that too

Tasha sat on the counter, swinging her feet as Clint poured pasta into a pot of boiling water. They hadn’t been to the farm in a while, and with a new tour it was going to be impossible to visit. Tasha wanted to see Dip and toast marshmallows and fuck Clint all over the house. It was their place now, their farm in the middle of Nowhere, Iowa, and Tasha liked that it wasn’t on Wikipedia.

He had written a song called _April, Her_ and they had put it on the album, but Tasha couldn’t sing it without crying. Clint’s body was close to hers, closer than he realised.

“Hey Clint?” she said.

He turned to her already smiling. “Yea, Tasha?”

[Image Caption: Clint sitting with his back against the wall and Tasha in his lap. The sign above them says DRESSING ROOM. Tasha is wearing Clint’s shirt and no pants and has her head thrown back, mid-laugh. Clint has one arm wrapped around her waist, the other hand holding one of her hands. His mouth is close to her ear, like he is telling a secret, and his smile is huge and happy.]

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 **natalia** i love him

OCTOBER 21, 2018


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